Friday, October 05, 2007

Microsoft Offers System to Track Health Records - New York Times

Okay, so maybe a significant departure from the original HailStorm scenarios...

Privacy is a serious consideration and one likely to slow the spread of personal health records. But Microsoft’s privacy principles have impressed Dr. Deborah Peel, chairwoman of the Patient Privacy Rights Foundation, a nonprofit group. In terms of patient control and openness to outside audits, “Microsoft is setting an industry standard for privacy,” Dr. Peel said.

Mr. Neupert of Microsoft said the key to building trust in the service would be a track record on privacy. Consumers, he noted, initially were reluctant to try online banking because of privacy worries. But today, online banking is mainstream.

“It’s going to be a long journey,” Mr. Neupert said. “To make a difference in health care, it is going to take time and scale. And Microsoft has both.”